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Rothschild Claim Sent to Court “Procurator”
The claim for Rothschild has been sent to the Procurator (last Friday) for formal lodging with the Malaga Mercantile Courts.
Missing documents pertaining to claimants (Powers of Attorney or Mortgage Deeds) can be added in the next few days.
On receipt of the stamped copy, we will be post the contents (except for personal data) on this website.
The “Audiencia Nacional” Charges Branch Manager for Fraud
For the first time, the National Audience has charged a branch manager criminally for mis-selling banking products.
This is a very near miss for the Nordea Bank S.A. boys whose case was thrown out of Court by the same Judge, Fernando Andreu, because he considered that there was not enough evidence to consider that there was a pre-conceived plan, by Nordea Bank, to cheat customers.
In this other case, the Bankia branch manager of a town in the Alicante area (Alberic) was reluctantly indicted by Fernando Andreu because his superiors in the same Tribunal ordered him to include, as part of a more extensive criminal investigation carried out against the CEOs of this bank, the end users who had been scammed into buying “preferential shares”.
After this gentle kick in the backside, the Magistrate has just requested the bank to provide a copy of the informative prospectus and the promotional literature.
Now that the Magistrate seems “convinced”, would he not want to see a copy of the promotional literature as offered by Nordea Bank Luxembourg S.A., from Luxembourg of course, that devises, encourages, promotes and sells tax evasion products specifically designed to cheat the Spanish Tax system (and which was reported), as well as its customers?
Jesper, we think it’s about time that you report your own bank for tax fraud, before it’s too late…
If you cannot find originals and copies of your own brochures don’t worry, we have plenty.
Spanish Taxman Warns Again: Equity Release to Mitigate IHT is Tax Fraud
Spanish Tax Office is insistent: customers are exposed to tax fraud if equity release mortgages are deducted from the estate calculation
Tax Office on Equity Release Binding Enquiry (click on image to download PDF)
But then Steve Dewsnip, from Rothschild, used to say the following:
“At Rothschild we are insistent that customers are not exposed to unexpected risks…”
And we now say: Steve, yes they are, so much so that only in respect of the tax matter, where the amount defrauded exceeds €120,000 per annum, there are jail terms ready to be handed down (Alhaurin penitentiary opening its doors to trusting clients?). Not to mention of course other risks that the product had to offer, in spite of Rothschild’s ultra-cautious approach: legal risk, currency risk, investment risk and not the least, health risk.
Barclays’ Senior Client Relations Advisor had stated in a letter published in an earlier post the following:
“We reviewed the ruling to which you refer and note that it relates to Spanish wealth tax only and does not deal with inheritance tax at all. Therefore, whatever conclusions in that ruling, they are not relevant to the issue of inheritance tax…The Bank satisfied itself that the scheme is not illegal.”
Two things on this:
- The scheme is not illegal per se, what is illegal is the sale of the scheme as a way to mitigate taxes and the pursuit of a tax benefit, as Barclays did, among other misrepresentations (such as it being a fantastic product for pensioners because it would provide an additional income stream to their retirement income etc.).
- The Tax Office has taken exception to the letter by Barclays and has specifically addressed the Inheritance Tax mitigation matter, rendering it openly as “Tax Fraud”. This means that Barclays is, prima facie, guilty of devising, promoting, endorsing and selling a product that is Tax Fraud.
And if the above holds water -which it clearly does- by extension all other schemes promoted by many other banks are illegal.
Explanation of the Rothschild CreditSelect Series 4
This email is a summary of the virtues of the Rothschild according to Stephen Dewsnip. The email, for obvious reasons, left out the “downsides” of this unconventional mortgage, a mortgage that according to him allowed the borrower to not be exposed to unnecessary risks..
From: Dewsnip, Stephen
Sent: 08 November 2006 09:16
To: ”
Subject: RE: Mtgs.
Importance: HighThank you for your enquiry regarding Rothschild’s Spanish mortgage service, CreditSelect Series 4, and I am now pleased to provide further information for you.
CreditSelect Series 4 is neither complicated nor expensive, and has been designed to enable you to make the funds invested in your Spanish property work harder for you. It is not a conventional mortgage facility but rather a financial planning tool that creates liquidity for you by providing a loan for investment purposes. It provides an initial ‘cash-back’ facility, the prospect of an annual income stream, the opportunity to diversify between asset classes, the prospect of long term capital growth through a diversified investment portfolio and, depending on your personal circumstances, tax planning opportunities. Most importantly, as far as we are concerned, the investments acceptable to us each have a 100% capital guarantee from highly rated, large European banks at the end of 10 years.
CreditSelect Series 4 is available to both residents, whose who live in Spain for longer than 183 days per annum, and non-residents and in keeping with Rothschild’s cautious and conservative approach has been designed to ensure that you are not exposed to unnecessary risks which, when considering that the product involves registering a mortgage over your Spanish home, we regard to be crucially important. There are no upper age limit restrictions or documentary proof of income required, although we do consider income and asset levels as part of our underwriting process. It is available where a property is owned by a company, as well as by individuals, and all paperwork and documentation is streamlined and standardised to make the application and completion process as smooth as possible.
In simple terms, it works by arranging a loan secured by a mortgage over your Spanish home with the loan proceeds being invested in a 100% capital guaranteed investment fund that matures after 10 years. Since the investment fund does not actually pay income throughout its 10 year period, we are happy for interest on the loan to roll-up and at the end of this period, the principal loan amount (ie. excluding any initial cash-back, rolled-up interest, capitalised fees and annual loan drawdowns that we permit to provide an ‘income’ stream) is repaid from the maturing investment. Of course, the investment funds are designed to return greater sums that the minimum guarantees and the aim is that the maturing investment fund will exceed the total loan balance, including all of the items listed above. As Rothschild is neither an investment nor tax adviser in this regard, we distribute the product via a network of financial advisers based predominantly in Spain and, should you wish, I would be pleased to provide you with a list of such advisers, with whom we are comfortable in dealing, in order that you can make direct contact.
Like your Spanish property, CreditSelect Series 4 loans are denominated in Euros, as is the investment, thus ensuring that you are not exposed to any unnecessary exchange rate risks. We lend up to 75% of the property’s current market value which, from the point of view of Spanish inheritance tax planning (something that, regrettably, is often overlooked by not only purchasers but also estate agents, property developers, and even Spanish lawyers and notaries), is considered to be adequate given the tax rate tapering effect, valuation methods acceptable to the Spanish authorities, and the interest roll-up feature of our facility. Our loans start from €200,000 with effectively no upper maximum, meaning that the product is available to owners of residential property valued at €270,000 or more.
With a CreditSelect Series 4 mortgage, you can take up to 5% of the property’s market value as initial capital or equity release and each year we compare how the investment fund has performed over the previous 12 months to the interest rate charged on the loan and permit an additional loan drawdown representing the surplus investment return, capped at 3% of the investment fund value. Since this is structured as a loan drawdown rather than as a withdrawal from the investment fund, it is not classified as income and hence is not liable to income tax assessment. Depending on your personal circumstances, this may also be beneficial to you.
In summary, CreditSelect Series 4 is not designed to be the most aggressive and risky product in the marketplace, in fact quite the opposite – we aim to help our clients in a conservative, cautious and well-structured manner without exposing them to undue risk.
I am enclosing a copy of our term sheet, which sets out the facility’s terms for non-residents in more detail, together with a copy of an article I wrote earlier this year on some of the tax rules in Spain, which you may also find of interest.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards
“ROTHSCHILD PRESENTS a TAILOR-MADE PRODUCT TO SUIT YOUR NEEDS” goes to COURT
Below is an informative letter sent to Rothschild potential claimants.
Dear Sir/Madam,
We hope this email finds you well.
The purpose of this email is to confirm that we will be lodging our claim against N.M. ROTHSCHILD & SONS for misleading and illicit advertising with the Courts in Malaga (Juzgados de lo Mercantil) next Friday 7th of June 2013.
We have experienced some delays due to not having documentary evidence which we consider to be relevant, as well as an unexpected Court filing fee that came into force shortly after our decision to file which meant that the case would have cost an additional 15k Euros to proceed with.
However, we can now confirm that we are now in a position to proceed as we have gathered a compelling amount of misleading advertising that constitutes the backbone of the case that is being filed with the Courts (to be posted at the ERVA -www.erva.es site over the weekend).
The referred to advertising was produced by Rothschild and also, by the IFA companies that were selected by Rothschild to sell the product. This advertising is false, untrue and encourages tax evasion by suggesting that Spanish Inheritance Taxes are so onerous that is nothing is done, inheritors of Spanish unencumbered property owners would be prevented from inheriting and the property would be lost to the Spanish State.
Other fallacious arguments include stating that the Rothschild mortgage is different from a normal mortgage, that the clients “…will not be exposed to unnecessary risks”, that the product “…is designed in such a way that it will potentially produce enough income to service the loan and also, leave a bit of money for the borrower”, that it is a “…responsible product” or “…similar to the Spanish reverse mortgage”, that Rothschild had “…restricted the availability of this product to handful of selected intermediaries” (Hamiltons and Henry Woods), that a “…Mrs. Smith (fictitious person) would have discovered following the death of her husband, to her horror, that IHT in Spain could reach 81.60% in Spain” (when the maximum liability of a spouse is limited to just over 34%) and many more.
Similarly, deliberate omission of the risks involved in the product are considered to be misleading and therefore, illicit. As an example, Rothschild deliberately concealed the consequence of the very obvious and unavoidable scenario where the investment does not cover the cost of the loan: you lose your home.
The writ includes several petitions to the Courts: that the advertising is declared illicit, that Rothschild runs at least 4 ads on the Essential Magazine rectifying the misleading publicity (at their cost) and that all contracts signed as a result of such publicity are set aside, restoring customers to their original position prior to signing of the Credit Select mortgage loan, insofar as is practicable.
Finally, we would like to stress that some IFAs are currently advising against going to Court and are recommending what is called as a “Standstill Agreement”. We would like to advise that such document is a legally useless agreement that does not deal with the fraudulent nature of the CreditSelect loan and is designed to buy time for Rothschild, who prefer to deal with the less belligerent children of their victims as they pass away. In other words, it is a cynical money-making ruse designed at the expense of perpetuating the suffering that N.M. Rothschild & Sons is inflicting on innocent property owners.
If you have not yet joined this case and you wish to, kindly reply to this email so that we can provide you with the necessary instructions.
With best regards
Sincerely
Rocco CAIRA, lawyer for clandestine SL Mortgage Funding
ERVA could have not found a better word to describe the client that Mr. Caira represented in Spain: clandestine.
From his Bilbao office, this “contract negotiator” expert had wholly ommited the fact that his client, Surrenda-Link Mortgage Holdings, had no authorisation to operate in Spain because it lacked the required license by the Bank of Spain…without exception. This means that it was in breach of EU mandatory regulatory compliance with the host country, among other minor legals of obligatory observance.
Together with his pal Javier Bicarregui Garay, another submissive lawyer who in turn represented -remotely- the victims of this fiasco devised by Charles “Charlie” Walton (without ever meeting them, talking to them or even the basic thing such as checking out the operation), with a power of attorney, tens of mortgage loans were signed off on distant properties via a servile happy-to-please Bilbao Notary…all of them, without exception, for an illegal investment purpose to evade Spanish taxes.
Mr. Bicarregui Garay was granted, according to the press, the Order of the British Empire.
It is strongly recommended that anyone that had given a power of attorney to Mr. Bicarregui Garay inmediately revokes it by formally signing a revocation of power of attorney public document, at the closest Notary Public.
Misleading Publicity Legal Suit to be Filed Against Rothschild
The DGT (General Directorate of Tax) has confirmed that mortgage loans for any other purpose than buying the property on which they are registered, are not deductible for Spanish Inheritance Tax Purposes.
Binding consultation 04423-13 received by Lawbird lawyers today (28th May), refers also to loans granted abroad (such as those by Rothschild, SLM, Nykredit etc.) that are guaranteed by mortgages on Spanish property and is adamant: only real debts can be used to mitigate taxes.
Nobody questions that N.M. Rothschild & Sons could and should have ensured that the product they were selling was legitimate, just like any diligent person carrying out any commecial activity in Spain would do (and indeed any where in the world).
Instead, they chose to make their clients accomplices of tax fraud because some inept lawyer at Gomez Acebo & Pombo decided that it was legal, at the insistence of clowns Mark Coutanche and Steve Dewsnip, to run this circus.
Claimants will demonstrate that all the publicity issued by Rothschild, and the companies they used to sell the product CreditSelect Series (as confirmed by honest and helpful former employees) is false, fraudulent, encouraged tax evasion and has caused untold grief on victims.
The legal suit against Rothschild is to be lodged with the Malaga Mercantil Courts on the 7th of June 2013.
The Lies of Barclays London on Equity Release
Barclays´ letters seem to dig a hole deeper for them whether it is to insist about the inheritance tax benefits (they still believe it works!) of their Spanish Property Investment Secured Loan (“SPISL”) or, as it happens, to question how could have someone been possibly introduced to Henry Woods Investment Managers, of all agents.
Letter. Click on Image for full PDF version (1.3 Mb)
In this latest missive, it says that the banks is not providing advice to you about your own position so you may wish to take your independent advice, but I would hope that you take some comfort from the Bank’s conclusion. And their conclusion is that the bank has satisfied that the scheme is not illegal.
It then says that our records do not detail how you were introduced to HWIM…. perhaps this photo can clarify this seemingly unsolvable enigma, as well as how one ends up dealing with Barclays, offering tax evasion products, from the very heart of the City.
Once again, the rats abandon the sinking ship!
SLMH and Henry Woods, Equity Release fraud at its best
The Surrenda Link Mortgage Holding fell for the fake tax mitigation scheme that Charles “Charlie” Walton, based in Estepona, came up with. Just how any bank could have been so stupid to believe it is shocking but more worryingly is the fact that trusting customers, conned in the most despicable manner, have to be chasing this bank to obtain a resolution to their plight.
Below is a letter that was sent to SLMH by lawyers acting for a victim:
Dear Sirs
As you may be aware, the above customers took out a mortgage with your company between the years 2006 and 2007. The purpose of this mortgage was to reduce the taxable value of their property, with a view to pay a lesser IHT, and to create at the same time an income stream that would enable them to improve their lifestyle, given that they are all pensioners.
It is my understanding that Mr. Charles Walton, from the Premier Group, introduced this scheme in Spain some years back and convinced the SLM Group to provide the loans. This seems clear from the information below:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/4195059/How-to-make-Spanish-property-pay.html
The following also appear to be true:
- Both Premier and SLM devised, planned, promoted and sold the product to British pensioners, under the appealing name SITIRS (Spanish Investment Transfer and Income Release Scheme), on the basis of one very clear message: “reduce the value of your property or face paying a very high tax rate”. The fraudulent and misleading advertising for this artifice is undisputed.
- The product was also deceitfully sold as a means to raise cash and provide an income stream, being self-sustainable: pensioners were not required to have an income (SITIRS brochure read “there are no income proof requirements from loan providers”).
- SLM was not regulated to provide mortgage loans in Spain, as is required by any entity that wishes to professionally provide such service in Spain. The footer warning note amply inserted in promotional literature is no mitigating factor to the lack of compliance with this non-waiverable requirement. If at all, it shows that in spite of knowing the existence of certain regulatory obligations, SLMH chose to infringe them deliberately.
- SLM instructed unregulated IFA to capture clients in Spain, against mandatory regulatory provisions. Hamiltons Financial Services is one of such agents and was used as a means for SLM and Premier Group to further their business in Spain. We find the allegation that the pseudo- IFA´s were in fact hired by the customer as an excuse that deforms reality and is obviously untrue.
- SLM instructed unregulated property valuers in Spain to capture clients, against mandatory regulatory provisions. Cluttons is one of such examples.
We would like to enter into a constructive dialogue in respect of these products, with a view to terminating the contracts on grounds that they are based on an illicit cause (tax evasion proposition), sold misleadingly as being able to legally reduce IHT taxes (irrespective of whether customers could have had independent advice), sold misleadingly as a means to provide an income for the duration of the term of the loan and utterly inadequate for the customer´s profile.
Should you deem the above proposition acceptable, I am be happy to discuss the procedure to achieve the a settlement on this matter.
Yours faithfully
